Portraits

I have made a clear cut decision to only concentrate on a niche part of the Portrait Market and my services reflect this, its not that I don’t like taking images of people, Its mainly what I did for many years, but I have a different perspective these days.

Generally I feel most portraiture photography is very formularised, it says very little about the subject and does not provide images that actually capture the essence of the subject.

Many years ago I decided that the for a portrait to be a success it needed to be something that your family could look at and feel it captured the persons character, emotion and of course likeness. Most portraits don’t, they are simply images where the subject sits in front of a standard background smiling in a formulaic way and for all intents and purposes looking just like a thousand other portraits. Lighting and posing may make the subject look important or perfect but it says little about the subject.

The real portraits, the ones that make your family glow inside, the ones that have lasting value are those that show people doing things that are part of their being, in locations that actually mean something to them. This is a challenge but not impossible.

So to me a real portrait is:

Not made inside a studio

Is not made using the cold hard light of flash

Does not pose the subject to suits some formularised norm

Is not made in clothes they would never wear

A Real Portrait is made:

With the subject involved in the activities of their life

Using lighting which looks natural and plausible but compliments the subject

Dressed in a way people normally see them

Posed in a way that is natural for them.

Think of the possibilities:

Dad in His Workshop

Mum in the Garden

A Teenager with his Favourite Possession, perhaps their car or musical instrument

A Grandparent Reading the paper or perhaps knitting

Does this sound like snaps, well it could be but it is much more than that, it is the craft of making the image look natural and timeless but still maintaining the core values of great lighting, composition and colour. In essence it sounds easy but in reality its very hard, but it is the only way I am interested in creating portraits.

These portraits of course need to be edited to a very high level and then printed on fine art media that is archival, this can be either textured matt papers or canvas. And speaking of canvas, perhaps you may like to go for the full effect and have the image edited to give a paint type effect.

Creating these images requires lots of consultation and planning and of course subject co-operation but I feel the end result justifies the process. This is not portraiture of bulk numbers or small prints for wallets it is certainly not about creating the sterotypical glamour look or the cardboard cut out. It is portraiture for defining the life of your loved ones for making a statement, “this is who I really am”, for creating images that in times to come will be seen as personality defining by the rest of the family.

If this sounds like your idea of a portrait, please contact me.

PLEASE NOTE:

Children under 4 years old will not be photographed, not because I don’t like kids, I do but simply because it is nearly impossible to capture quality images reliably from young children. There are many good studios set-up to cater to this market and bearing in mind how quickly young children change my approach is probably not the most practical.

This is not for group photos, though it is possible to create photos of couples.